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Monday, 13 January 2014

MORE MEDIA SELF-CENSORSHIP OVER KING

Once again Swaziland’s Times Sunday has censored
itself and misled its readers about international criticism of King Mswati
III.

It misreported a CNN report about US President Barack
Obama’s criticism of Swaziland and its king, who rules the kingdom as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Obama was speaking at the tribute
to the life of Nelson Mandela.

The Times,
which is part of the only newspaper group in Swaziland that is not controlled
by the King, reported that Ghitis said Freedom House, an international human
rights organisation, described Swaziland as a ‘failed state’.

But, that is not what Ghitis actually wrote. She said
Freedom House called Swaziland a ‘failed feudal
state’, which is something quite different. By deliberately changing the sense
of the statement, the Times deflected
the criticism away from the King.

The newspaper also did not report that Ghitis also
referred in her article to ‘dictators and their right-hand men’ who were
present at the tribute to Mandela.

Ghitis wrote, but the Times
did not report,‘It included the likes
of Swaziland Prime Minister [Barnabas] Sibusiso Dlamini, representing the small
kingdom described by Freedom House as “a failed feudal state,” where the king
uses photos of beautiful girls to attract tourists, “distracting outsiders from
Swaziland's shocking realities of oppression, abject poverty, hunger and
disease.”

‘Freedom House says that in the past 40 years, “two
despots have used Swaziland for their personal purposes while ignoring the
needs of the Swazi people and their legitimate rights to have a say over how
they are governed and how the country's resources are used” -- the very
antithesis of Mandela’s struggle.’

This is not the first time the Times Sunday has deliberately distorted the news to mislead its
readers about criticism of King Mswati.

In 2012, it
distorted a story about UK Prime Minister David Cameron and freedom and
democracy in the kingdom, to deflect criticism away from the King.

The newspaper carried a report saying that Cameron had
responded to a petition from the Swazi
Vigil, a prodemocracy group in the UK.

According to the Times
Sunday, the petition read in part, ‘Exiled Swazis and supporters urge you
to put pressure on (the Swazi Government) to allow political freedom, freedom
of the press, rule of law, respect for women and affordable AIDS drugs in
Swaziland.’

The newspaper inserted the words ‘the Swazi Government’
into the petition to make it seem that it was Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini
and his cabinet that was being criticised.

In fact, the petition
sent to Cameron in May 2012 actually read, ‘Petition to the British
Government: Exiled Swazis and supporters urge you to put pressure on absolute
monarch King Mswati III to allow political freedom, freedom of the press, rule
of law, respect for women and affordable AIDs drugs in Swaziland.’

The Swazi Vigil made it very clear that it was
criticising ‘absolute monarch King Mswati III’.

The Times Sunday
and other media in Swaziland constantly mislead their readers and audiences
about how King Mswati is viewed outside his kingdom. In May 2012 there was
widespread criticism against King Mswati’s invitation to join a lunch in London
to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

There were street
demonstrations in London against the King and prodemocracy campaigners drew
attention to the lack of freedoms in Swaziland and the lavish lifestyle the
king enjoys, while seven in ten of his subjects languish in absolute poverty,
earning less than US$2 a day.

Inkhosikati LaMbikiza, one of the King’s 13 wives who
accompanied him to the lunch, wore shoes costing
£995 (US$1,559), the equivalent of more than three years’ income for 70
percent of Swazi people. The total
cost of the King’s trip was estimated to be at least US$794,500.

The Times, the
companion paper to the Times Sunday,
reported at the time that Inkhosikati LaMbikiza had ‘rave reviews’ from the Daily Mail newspaper in London for her
dress sense, but omitted to say the same newspaper also
reported, ‘Guests from controversial regimes include Swaziland’s King
Mswati III, who has been accused of living an obscenely lavish lifestyle while
many of his people starve.’

There was similar criticism a year earlier in April 2011
when King Mswati went to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The Times newspaper in South Africa
reported at the time, ‘The controversial absolute monarch, whose country is
ranked among the poorest in the world, spent much of this week playing
hide-and-seek with prodemocracy demonstrators tailing him across London.’ The King
was forced to change his hotel to avoid pickets.

The Swazi media failed to report any of this, but did say
that King Mswati had been welcomed by business people in the UK.